Final Presidential Debate Tonight

The final Presidential Debate is taking place tonight between President Donald Trump and challenger and former Vice President, Joe Biden. The question is will it make a difference in the outcome of the election? Most experts think not.

Tonight’s debate will be handled a bit differently than the first debate in that while the initial answer to a question is being given by either candidate, the microphone of the other candidate will be shut-off. Both candidates will be able to engage freely after that during the discussion portion of each topic. The new rules are the result of the constant interruptions by President Trump while former Vice President Biden was speaking during the first debate on September 29th and the overall feeling that the entire debate was out of control. When the new rule was put into place, President Trump wasted no time in saying that he was not happy about it, but that he would participate in the debate.

Initially when the discussions were happening about potentially putting a microphone rule into effect, I was a bit unsettled by it. Originally the idea was that the moderator would have control over muting a candidate’s microphone if he/she determined that one candidate wasn’t letting the other candidate answer without interruption. As someone who has been the moderator in more than one debate in the past, I would definitely not be comfortable with having that power for what I think are obvious reasons.

In any case… here are the details for tonight’s final face to face debate:

Time: 9:00 PM to 10:30 PM
Location: Belmont University, Nashville
Moderator: Kristen Welker
Television: ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS
Streaming: CSPAN on Youtube.com, CBSN, CNNgo
Apps: FOX News App, CBS News App

The topics for tonight’s debate are these (not necessarily in this order): Fighting COVID-19, American Families, Race in America, Climate Change, National Security, and Leadership. There will be six segments of roughly 15 minute each, and each candidate will have two minutes without interruption at the beginning of each segment.

Strap in. Despite the microphone modifications, I’m guessing this is still going to a bumpy ride.